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16
Jun
Britain’s best young singers to compete for £7,000 at Northern Aldborough festival tonight
Four of the country’s best young classical vocalists will compete in the final of a £7,000 competition tonight at the Northern Aldborough Festival.
The summer arts festival near Boroughbridge, which runs until Friday, introduced the New Voices Singing Competition three years ago to support singers aged 18 to 32 at a time of limited arts funding.
The finalists will go head-to-head in a live performance at St Andrew’s Church at 7pm.
This year’s judging panel features arguably England’s most famous living operatic baritone, Sir Thomas Allen, the pioneering female conductor Dame Jane Glover and pianist Sholto Kynoch.
They selected the following performers following a semi-final round:
• Nikki Martin (soprano) and Esther Ersfeld (pianist)
• Caroline Taylor (soprano) and Sebastian Issler (pianist)
• Rachel Munro (soprano) and Jia Ning Ng (pianist)
• Eiry Price (soprano) and Iwan Owen (pianist)
The winner will receive a £5,000 cash award. The runner-up and third place will receive £1,500 and £500 respectively.
The inaugural New Voices winner in 2023 was mezzo-soprano Lea Shaw, who was consequently picked as a BBC Music Magazine ‘Rising Star.’ The festival has this year assisted Lea in securing professional management with one of the UK’s leading agencies.
Festival director Robert Ogden, who had a career as an operatic countertenor and is on the judging panel, said:
Lea Shaw’s success shows how our competition can really make a tangible difference to young musicians who face enormous challenges entering an increasingly tough industry.
In today’s landscape of music and arts funding cuts, we see the competition as a valuable platform to support young classical singers to launch their careers, as well as to get in front of some of the industry’s leading and influential figures. It’s also a unique and unmissable chance for audiences to witness major musical stars on their ascent.
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